merritt k, formerly Merritt Kopas, is a Canadian writer, editor, and

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...

. k is known for her games ''LIM'', ''HUGPUNX'', and ''Consensual Torture Simulator''. She said that the theme of her games is "the capacity of digital games to convey care relationships; either to provide a sense of care to the player or to invest her in the project of caring for another." Much of her early work is no longer available, k said those works "felt personal in a way that I was uncomfortable with", and that post-

Gamergate Gamergate or GamerGate (GG) was a loosely organized online misogyny, misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. It was conducted using the ...

, "being personal online was a much more dangerous proposition...for a lot of people." k is the author of Internet fiction and zines such as ''Dear Pauline'' and ''These Were Free on my Blog''. k is the editor of the

Twine Twine is a strong Thread (yarn), thread, light String (structure), string or cord composed of string in which two or more thinner strands are twisted, and then twisted together (Plying, plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to ...

game print anthology '' Videogames for Humans'' and co-author of the poetry collection ''Total Mood Killer'' and the comics-poetry hybrid text ''Internet Murder Revenge Fantasy''. In 2024, she published ''LAN Party'', a photo book revisiting the early 2000s heyday of the

LAN party A LAN party is a social gathering of gamer, participants with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router (computing), router or network switch, switc ...

. From 2019 to 2023, she was an editor at '' Fanbyte''.

Career

k grew up with games and the ''

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

'' book series, though her academic background was in sociology. Her first game to attract wider attention was ''LIM'', released on her website for free in 2012. ''LIM'' was made in Construct 2, and is a maze game about navigating public spaces and the perception of others. It was made during her first summer publicly presenting as a queer woman, and was an expression of that experience. Also in 2012, she discovered the

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

tool

. Though Twine as first released in 2009, k credits

Anna Anthropy Anna Anthropy is an American video game designer, role-playing game designer, and interactive fiction author whose works include '' Mighty Jill Off'' and '' Dys4ia''. She is the game designer in residence at the DePaul University College of Co ...

's 2012 work, '' Rise of the Videogame Zinesters'', for bringing it to a wider audience. k authored works using Twine, and was grouped into a 'queer games scene' which featured other trans women creatives such as Anthropy, Mattie Brice, and Porpentine, the presence of which lead k to declare in ''

Lambda Literary The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve their legaci ...

'' that "hypertext and digital games are totally trans genres". In 2015, k published ''Videogames for Humans'', a collection of conversations between Twine authors and critics. On her personal website, k has published such games as ''Minkomora'', ''Obeissance'', and ''Take Care'' – the last one described as a game in which the player reaches through the ether to offer comfort to a distressed person. Some of her smaller pieces, such as the game ''Super Consent'', deal with the complexities of issues like

consent Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual consent. Consent as understood i ...

and why and how they should be dealt with in culture. In September 2016, the

NYU Game Center The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch i ...

announced k as its first-ever artist in residence.

''(ASMR) Vin Diesel DMing a Game of D&D Just For You''

''(ASMR) Vin Diesel DMing a Game of D&D Just For You'' was designed by k in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. The

game features American actor

Vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic "Dom" Toretto in the '' Fast & Furious'' fra ...

providing a "quick game" of the fantasy

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' to help the player feel better about themselves. Diesel is also a big fan of ''D&D''. The game involves pictures of the actor as well as text introducing the game to the player. The

autonomous sensory meridian response An autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)Marsden, Rhodri (20 July 2012), ''The Independent''. is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper Vertebral column, spine. A pleasant form ...

(ASMR) aspect of the game is in the gameplay rather than as audio.

Podcasts

k hosted her own podcast called ''Woodland Secrets'', where she interviewed primarily women, people of color, and queer people. On June 19, 2016, she began hosting ''Dadfeelings'', a podcast about fictional dads and the feelings associated with them. k also guest starred on the

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

podcast ''CoolGames Inc.'' for an episode.

Games

* ''TERF War'' – July 2012 * ''LIM'' – August 2012 * ''Princess Queen'' – September 2012 * ''Brace'' – October 2012 * ''A Synchronous Ritual'' – October 2012 * ''Queer Pirate Plane'' – December 2012 * ''Bubblegum Slaughter'' – January 2013 * ''Octopy'' – March 2013 * ''Hugpunx'' – June 2013 * ''Consensual Torture Simulator'' – October 2013 * ''Take Care'' – October 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merritt K Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Women video game designers Women video game developers 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Canadian video game designers LGBTQ video game developers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian transgender writers